Happy New Year to All!
Like all of us, we wonder if we can put 2020 behind us and overcome the many issues of COVID-19. It has impacted us in so many ways, and its effects will remain with us for some time, unfortunately.
However, District employees and board members have adjusted and never lost a day to it in 2020. Our dedicated staff members, infrastructure, communications, and coordination made it possible for us to continue to deliver a high level of service throughout our area. It wasn’t without effort though. We learned how to do things differently, quickly, and efficiently. That kept all of us sharp to see trends and nuances in our activities. For example, our board quickly learned to use Zoom to conduct board meetings, since they could not meet in person. Our field operations and customer service field staff learned how to do their work safely, while social-distancing and handling electronic work orders.
These changes helped us to navigate these different times and get our work done, assuring the delivery of necessary utilities flowed each day without interruption.
You, our consumers stepped it up too! You were financially capable to pay your bills on time and even extended yourself to fund our new “Pay-it-Forward” program to help others. To date, your contributions have allowed 45 local families to see the benefit of a one-time payment on their accounts too! This has been great given the uncertain financial times that many others have had to live with.
You may have seen we have no rate increases again this year on our portion of your bill, even though some of our suppliers raised their rates. Even though residential water use was down slightly last year, we have one industrial account that helped make up the shortfall. We continue our involvement in economic development discussions regularly, and it’s great to see new industries come to our county. Their employment, tax dollars, and of course, water and sewer usage help in years like this! We hope this trend continues into a stronger 2021 year!
Jerry Greiner
President
The Northwestern Water and Sewer District